State of Connecticut Archives: on Social Security

Joe Visconti:
Means-tested aid for utilities for fixed income seniors

Senior citizens, our parents and grandparents, are an invaluable part of our community and our families. We are losing too many of them to more affordable states and we must do what we can to help them remain residents of Connecticut.
Furthermore, seniors need to be treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve.

As governor, Joe plans to

Phase out the estate tax to provide seniors with the peace of mind that they can retire in
Connecticut near their family and friends.

David Walker:
Restructure retiree pensions to be equitable & sustainable

Retirement Obligations: Connecticut has some of the highest unfunded retirement commitments in the nation.
Irresponsible and inadequately funded retirement promises have long been the rule in Connecticut. We need to restructure existing state pension and retiree health obligations in an equitable and sustainable manner in order to save the systems.

Chris Murphy:
To do nothing about entitlements is irresponsible

When asked about what she would do to shore up Social Security and Medicare, McMahon said federal lawmakers need to ''sit down and put those issues on the table and go through them all and debate them and have the CBO (Congressional Budget Office)
score them and to see what economically makes sense and how we're going to move forward, protecting our benefits and making sure that both Social Security and Medicare are there for the long term,'' McMahon said. ''To do nothing is irresponsible.''

Murphy has accused McMahon of wanting to ''sunset'' or phase out Social Security after 10 to 15 years for a review, pointing to taped comments she made to a group of tea party activists earlier this year when she used the word sunset.
He has also accused McMahon of supporting proposals to privatize Medicare. McMahon has denied both accusations and repeated that she would not support a budget that cuts funding to either program.

Source: Boston Globe coverage of 2012 CT Senate debate
Oct 18, 2012

Chris Murphy:
Earnings cap for Soc.Sec.; and means-testing for Medicare

Murphy has called for increasing the cap on how much money goes into Social Security by having the wealthiest Americans pay more in Social Security taxes. On Medicare, the congressman has said the federal government should
continue streamlining the system and reward medical outcomes rather than the number of procedures. If that doesn't deliver enough savings, he has said there should be means testing for Medicare for the very wealthy.

Republican Linda McMahon explained why she hasn't offered specifics on how she'd change Social Security and Medicare to keep the programs financially solvent, saying she would be ''demagogued'' for providing detailed ideas. When asked about what she
would do to shore up the two benefits, McMahon acknowledged ''there are several things to think about,'' but said she has purposely ''not offered specifics when I'm on the campaign trail because I'd get demagogued.''

Afterward,
McMahon told reporters the media are the ones doing the damagoguing of Medicare and Social Security. ''Thanks to all you all folks in the media, you're the ones who primarily do it and bash any suggestions that might be made to improve either
Social Security or Medicare,'' she said.

Murphy pounced on McMahon's ''demagoguing'' comment, accusing McMahon of admitting she doesn't want to risk votes by offering up specific ideas to the voters.

When asked about what she would do to shore up Social Security and Medicare, McMahon said federal lawmakers need to ''sit down and put those issues on the table and go through them all and debate them and have the CBO (Congressional Budget Office)
score them and to see what economically makes sense and how we're going to move forward, protecting our benefits and making sure that both Social Security and Medicare are there for the long term,'' McMahon said. ''To do nothing is irresponsible.''

Murphy has accused McMahon of wanting to ''sunset'' or phase out Social Security after 10 to 15 years for a review, pointing to taped comments she made to a group of tea party activists earlier this year when she used the word sunset.
He has also accused McMahon of supporting proposals to privatize Medicare. McMahon has denied both accusations and repeated that she would not support a budget that cuts funding to either program.

Murphy said he voted to raise the debt ceiling and he would do it again.
The congressman said Republicans wanted to hold the economy hostage as part of the debt ceiling discussion and privatize Social Security.

Source: New Haven Register on 2012 CT Senate debate
Mar 3, 2012

The above quotations are from State of Connecticut Politicians: Archives.

Click here for definitions & background information on Social Security.